Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) is an international, cross-industry collaboration and standard that has been developed in order to facilitate consumer devices to communicate with each other in a home network and share media between the devices.
The DLNA compatible devices communicate with each other within the home network via Universal Plug and Play (UPnP), which is a set of protocols that allow devices to connect seamlessly and share data.
DNLA compatible user equipment is operable within a home network typically comprising multiple DLNA compatible user equipment, potentially of different types and manufactures. In the art, a division of DLNA compatible user equipment based primarily on their function in the media distribution and rendering within the home network has been used and involves, among other, Digital Media Server (DMS), Mobile DMS (M-DMS), Digital Media Player (DMP), Mobile DMP (M-DMP), Digital Media Renderer (DMR), Digital Media Controller (DMC) and Mobile DMC (M-DMC).
DMS and M-DMS are devices that store media content and make it available to wired and/or wireless networked DMP, M-DMP and DMR. DMS and M-DMS include, among others, personal computers, network attached storage (NAS) devices, mobile phones and portable music players. A DMP or M-DMP is a device that finds content on a DMS or M-DMS and provides playback and rendering capabilities. TVs, stereos, home theatres, wireless monitors, game consoles, mobile phones and mobile media tables are illustrative examples of user equipment that can operate as DMP or M-DMP. A DMC or M-DMC is a device that finds content on a DMS or M-DMS and plays it on a DMR. DMC and M-DMC include Internet tablets, Wi-Fi® enabled digital cameras, personal digital assistants (PDA) and mobile phones, etc. Finally, a DMR is a device that plays content received from a DMC or M-DMC and includes devices, such as TVs, audio/video receivers, video displays, remote speakers.
A DLNA based home network may also include other DLNA compatible devices such as Digital Media Printer (DMPr), Mobile Digital Media Uploader (M-DMU), Mobile Digital Media Donwloader (M-DMD) Mobile Network Connectivity Function (M-NCF) and Media Interoperability Unit (MIU).